News

Chicago -- Retail CFOs are feeling more confident about the state of the consumer, forecast a 5.1% increase in total sales and a 4.8% increase in same-store sales this year, according to a new BDO USA survey. The finding marks a significant increase from the number expressing similar sentiments last year.

In the study,  a majority (63%) of CFOs indicate that they include online sales in their comparable sales projections, suggesting that some of this expected growth and optimism may be linked to the exploding popularity of e-commerce.

Residents of the Washington, D.C., metro area can now have products ordered from supermarket operator Harris Teeter delivered within the hour following Instacart’s entry into the market.

Instacart’s network of personal shoppers began delivering items ordered from Harris Teeter on Feb. 11. The service provider expects to add other retailers in the coming weeks which would allow shoppers to combine items from multiple stores in a single order and have them delivered in as little as one hour.

Boston - Shoebuy.com has named Anabela Perozek as the company's new CMO. Perozek joins Shoebuy's senior management team and will report to CEO Mike Sorabella.

Littleton, Mass. -- Dover Saddlery reported a preliminary unaudited decline of 6% in its year-over-year net income for 2013, from $1.7 million to $1.6 million. Preliminary unaudited revenues for 2013 increased $7.5 million, or 8.7%, to approximately $93.8 million from $86.3 million achieved in 2012.

Same-store sales rose 4% for the year. In addition, Dover Saddlery expects to open five to seven new stores in fiscal 2014 and also expand its e-commerce operation.

L’Oréal is reportedly buying back 8% of its shares from Nestlé, loosening their long-standing alliance.

L’Oréal will buy 48.5 million of its own shares. Following the transaction, Nestlé’s stake in L’Oréal will be reduced from 29.4% to 23.29% of the share capital and the Bettencourt Meyers family’s stake in L’Oréal will increase from 30.6% to 33.31%.

Austin, Texas - Whole Foods Market will offer new payment and checkout features from digital payment provider Square that allow customers to make purchases at food venues within select Whole Foods Market stores. These in-store venues, including sandwich counters, juice and coffee bars, pizzerias, and beer and wine bars, will use the Square Register and Square Stand solutions.

Stater Bros. has named Michael Reed as the company’s senior director of real estate.

"We have great confidence that Michael will do an outstanding job of leading our real estate division," said chairman and CEO Jack H. Brown. "His management and real estate expertise will help Stater Bros. meet our present and future real estate needs."

Reston, Va. -- comScore and Google are partnering to offer a real-time audience metric designed to help brand marketers easily measure campaigns across screens. After a period of testing, comScore vCE will be available to DoubleClick marketer and publisher clients, built into the widely used ad management platform.